


A thousand tiny steps

by suyari



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Daemons, Gen, His Dark Materials - Freeform, Kidfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-21
Updated: 2013-10-21
Packaged: 2017-12-30 02:53:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1013209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suyari/pseuds/suyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being different is hard to hide in a world where people's souls walk beside them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A thousand tiny steps

**Author's Note:**

> I have taken some liberties with the way dæmons work. This takes place in a completely separate AU from Marvel and His Dark Materials mainline canons.
> 
> Disclaimer: Despite my deepest wishes the Young Avengers do not belong to me, and so I can only borrow them. I likewise do not own the rights to dæmons. They are the creative property of Phillip Pullman.

"You're going to _fall_!" Cassie cried, hands to her cheeks.

"Oh, I can't watch. I can't watch," Stature chirped, paws over his face.

Tommy snorted and swung his legs up over the next branch.

Teddy looked aside to Billy and then up to the branches and back. "How...?"

Billy quirked an eyebrow, Specan's head cocking sideways over his shoulder.

"You guys share a dæmon, right?"

"They're twins," Kate replied, as if Teddy's eyes weren't functioning properly.

"Yeah, so..." He looked at the three of them again, Tommy, Eli and Patriot pausing in their upward progress. Teddy made a gesture. "How's he up there and...Doesn't that... _hurt_?"

"Their mom's a witch," Cassie pipped up.

"Scarlet can fly far from Mom. Specan..." Billy shrugged, and Specan padded across to the safety of his other shoulder. "I dunno. As long as she's with one of us we're all fine."

"Wanna see?" she asked, shifting forms before Teddy could comment either way and flying up to settle atop Tommy's head. "See? We're fine!"

Tommy flagged an arm as if he'd performed some sort of trick, and Billy held out his own arms.

"That's just not fair," Hulking whined, curling up at Teddy's feet, decidedly unimpressed, given the jealousy.

"Okay, so, she can move between you and you're fine, but that can be a long way away?"

"Can we get back to the race?" Eli drawled. "I was winning."

"No you weren't!" Tommy protested, hanging from a limb half a foot above him. Specan fell, fluttering her wings to right herself in the space.

Patriot closed the distance between them and nimbly walked across the branch Tommy was hanging from.

"Yeah, keep thinking that," Eli replied. "But I have secret moves that can take even you!"

Tommy rolled his eyes.

"Are you _cheating_?!" Specan gasped.

"Oh lighten up, Specan," Tommy groaned, as Billy sighed from the ground. "Let them cheat, they still can't win! Eli can't even climb the tree without Patriot!"

Patriot hissed and took a swipe at Specan who fluttered sideways.

"Ow! Guys, cut it out!" Billy yelled.

"No fighting!" Kate said authoritatively. "Or Hawkeye and I will go up there and stop you."

"Oh, Katie! Saaaave me!!" Tommy gasped, wiggling.

"Tom," Billy said, pointing to where Eli and Patriot were scrambling up the tree.

"Cheaters!" Tommy and Specan cried.

"Specan, get 'er!"

"GUYS!" Billy stomped his foot as Specan flew up and clipped Patriot in the ear. She swiped at her and Specan began flying about her head.

" _Now_ who's cheating?!" Eli yelled, unable to go any further. "Patriot, get over here!"

"Specan, stop it!" Billy cried.

"WE WIN!!!" Tommy yelled, arms up at the top of the tree.

Teddy arched his back, hands over his eyes. "But if your mom's a witch..."

"YAY!" Specan sped up to the top of the tree and flew about Tommy's head a few times, before switching forms so they could hug out their victory.

"Then how are you two..."

The pair atop the tree stilled at the ominous crack.

"It's going to give! Hawkeye, let's go!"

The pair were a good quarter way up the base of the tree when the branch gave entirely. Eli dove and gave a grunt as his belly caught a branch hard, but he had Tommy by the hand.

Specan flicked her tail and peered down at him. "Are you okay, Tommy?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Uh...Eli..."

"Ye-ahhhh!"

Specan and Patriot scrambled as the boys dropped. Kate jumped free of the tree and caught them both, the trio falling to the ground in a pile.

Billy dropped to the ground in agony. Teddy bent down to lay a hand to his back. "Are you okay?"

"Specan! Specan!!" Cassie screeched. "Hurry! Hurry!"

The twins' dæmon bounded down the tree with a nimbleness she hadn't shown before and curled about Tommy's - the closest twin - neck.

Billy rolled over onto his back and took deep breaths.

Hulking peered into his face then looked back up at Teddy.

"Are you a witch?" Teddy asked, eyes wide in surprise.

~*~

"It shouldn't really matter," Hulking said, crossing Teddy's windowsill.

"It doesn't."

" _We're_ not exactly normal ourselves."

Teddy sighed.

Hulking jumped to his bedside table and padded across his bed. "How many other dæmons have to make two whole decisions?"

"Why can't you just be a _girl_ like everyone else?!"

"Why can't _you_?"

"Why are we so _different_?!" Teddy moaned.

"Because we're special."

Teddy looked at him and frowned.

"Tommy and Billy _share_ a dæmon and no one thinks _that's_ strange."

"They're _twins_."

"Exactly. They know what it's like to be different."

Teddy folded his arms and exhaled heavily.

~*~

"Billy, _please_ stop pacing, you're making me dizzy!"

"Well it serves you right! You shouldn't have done that."

"Please don't be angry," Specan said, moving from Tommy's side and climbing up Billy to settle atop his shoulder and nuzzle his cheek. "You know I can't bear it when you fight."

"Sorry," Billy murmured.

She looked to Tommy who crossed his arms, but still apologized after a moment. "Sorry."

"Thank you."

Billy stretched out beside Tommy and Specan curled up between them.

"Did you see the way he looked at me?" Billy whispered.

"Screw him. The jerk."

"It's not like we're _normal_ ," his twin replied.

"Who wants to be _normal_ ," Tommy countered.

"I think it'd be nice to be normal, sometimes," Specan sighed. "But then I would only have one of you." Her nose bunched. "And that's just wrong." She sighed. "I really don't know how other dæmons manage. It must be awfully uncomfortable."

"Besides," Tommy commented. "Teddy's not normal either."

"He _isn't_?!"

"Bill, Hulking is a _boy_."

"His dæmon's _male_?!"

"How'd you not notice?!"

"Guys," Specan whined.

"Sorry," they said in unison.

Billy reached to stroke her back and Tommy scratched between her ears. Specan sighed and closed her eyes. Billy yawned. Tommy yawned. In moments they were all asleep.

~*~

"I'm a witch!" Billy declared.

Their friends blinked at them.

"Congratulations?" Patriot remarked.

"Guys, we already know," Kate explained.

"You did?" Billy asked.

"We did."

"We've known for a while," Eli added.

"They had to tell _me_ ," Cassie said, gesturing between Kate and Eli.

"How'd you know?"

"Billy, it was obvious," Kate sighed.

"Wait, wait! Either of us could have been a witch!" Tommy interrupted. "Why Billy?" After nothing but stares, he added, "What? I could have been a witch!"

The laughter followed.

"Well I _could_ have!"

~*~

"I'm a witch."

"My dæmon's a boy."

"So..."

"So..."

"Can we hurry this up?!" Tommy cried. "Are you going to be all weird around us now or what?"

Teddy blinked in surprise. "Weird? Why?"

"Because...I'm a witch?" Billy guessed.

"Because we share a dæmon?" Tommy added helpfully.

"I think all that's cool."

"So what's the problem?" asked Specan.

"What?" Teddy looked from the dæmon to the twins. "I don't have a problem with any of that."

"You don't?" Tommy asked, arms folded and eyes narrowed.

"You _don't_?"

"No. I mean...I never met a witch before and...Well I never saw twins before either so...We just moved here. We move a lot. And...I don't know, we're not from the city like you guys, and it was, yeah, okay, it was weird. But not the bad kind of weird. The good kind. The city's full of so much stuff and it's just..."

"We don't have any friends," Hulkling interrupted, saving Teddy from an endless ramble. "People don't like to associate with us when they find out we're...different."

"You should be proud to be different," Specan said. "Different is special."

"We know that," Hulking replied, dropping to the ground to be on the same level as her, though he still towered over her. "It's just different in practice."

"And you're all alone."

"Yeah."

Specan pawed at Hulkling's face and he tilted his head into the comfort. After a moment, they were aligning bodies and nuzzling.

"Any one else really uncomfortable?" Tommy said loudly.

Neither Billy nor Teddy answered. The former looking away, the latter looking down, both glowing red.

"How about we start with _lunch_?" Tommy suggested.

"Lunch?" Teddy asked, peering up at him from beneath obscenely long blond lashes.

"Yeah, you know, lunch. The meal between breakfast and dinner?"

"Tommy," Billy mumbled.

"Come on. If they're going to be all lovey dovey," he said, hooking a thumb in their dæmons' direction. "We may as well get to know each other better."

Teddy looked aside at where Hulkling and Specan were snuggling.

"Yeah...yeah, lunch sounds great."

"LUNCH!" Tommy yelled at their dæmons. He sighed when they didn't respond. "It's your fault she's like this," he said to his twin.

Billy looked sideways and smiled meekly.

"Come on," Tommy said, taking each by the hand. "They'll notice when the pulling starts." He hooked his arms about each of their own, forcing each to make the allowance. "So, Teddy...How do you feel about tree racing?"


End file.
